Whither the Vines?

The Vines were Australian rock's Next Big Thing. What went wrong? Andrew Murfett reports on the eve of their Melbourne show.

The Vines are at a critical juncture. The Sydney band's new album Winning Days, the follow-up to Highly Evolved, has received lukewarm reviews and had poor sales. The band's reputation is still reeling from diabolical shows in Australia last year. Singer Craig Nicholls has been banned by the band and its management from doing media interviews.

Bass player Patrick Matthews has been a close friend of Nicholls since the two were teenagers flipping burgers at a McDonald's together. He says that when Nicholls had to do interviews in England recently, the results were disastrous. "There was one from Kerrang! magazine," he says. "It was just him with their photographer and journalist slanging each other. Craig would say, 'Your magazine is crap,' and the journo would say, 'Your record is shit,' and it just degenerated.

"I knew there was a backlash coming regardless - but we got really horrible press . . . just really bad. Not even like 'Craig's a twat', but really savage language.

"The aim was to go over and promote the record but in the end, we just wasted a month overseas. It would've been better if we stayed at home almost, or maybe given up and re-released it in six months time."

With the band under intense pressure, both externally and internally, Matthews says they may break up.

"There is potential we may not be a band at all," he says cautiously. "Or we might just become a band that mostly makes records in Australia for $10,000 and goes overseas occasionally for a two-week tour.

"We can't force Craig into doing things he doesn't want to do. We may have to scale down operations. We're not thinking too much about that yet though. We are thinking maybe we should write another record and just spend more time in Australia. I mean, it could go either way."

A bright hope for the Vines is that it has emerged that the band will follow in the footsteps of compatriots Jet and provide the soundtrack for Apple's next iPod campaign with the single Ride from Winning Days. Many credit Jet's iPod campaign as being the key factor that broke the band in the US.

Following their Australian shows this week, the Vines will make the most of the exposure and head back to the US for a lengthy make-or-break arena tour with US rockers Incubus.

The Vines have seen the dedication Jet put into promotion. It is something Matthews says his band are currently incapable of doing.

Sales of the Vines's second album have been poor.

"It's a pity for us," he says. "Generally, Jet do a radio show or two every morning, then continually do phone interviews from around the world and TV shows, too. Everyone knows about their record now, which is just healthy for the band. We can't seem to organise ourselves to that sort of thing and it sucks."

But regardless of this, Jet were somehow supporting the Vines. "They're bigger then we ever were," Matthews agrees. "They're selling 30,000 albums a week." Jet's Get Born is at the top of the Australian album charts.

Winning Days was recorded in New York with the producer of their debut, Rob Schnapf. The result is a slightly more subdued effort than Highly Evolved. "The themes are more introspective and less wild rock'n'roll," Matthews says. "Get Free and Outta The Way were shouting at the devil. Besides F--- The World, which actually has some meaning behind it, this is more concentrated."

Highly Evolved sold more than 1.5 million copies when it was released, but as of last week Winning Days, released at the end of March, had peaked at No. 23 on the US Billboard charts before plummeting. It is now at 75 in Australia and has dropped off the British charts. Still, Matthews is trying to be optimistic.

"We have to try to turn it around," he says. "I think we have a few aces up our sleeves. We can't promote records like other bands can and it's impossible to just keep touring because its so expensive - we have to sell records to back it up."